And not one of those things is relevant to gaining widespread desktop adoption.

Not only are you scum, but the original owner is likely just going to buy another iPad to replace the stolen one, thus giving Apple more money. Congrats on your failure as a human being.

Perhaps not, but Sony and Nintendo are both losing money right now as well. Console gaming is in a curious position at this point.

Still, I would say that building the brand is incredibly important, and that if they had allowed Sony to dominate the living room, it could have opened the door for significant inroads against the PC in the home.

I stopped reading partway through - it read like a hit piece. Let's go ahead and ignore the success of Windows 7, XBOX 360, Office, SharePoint, Lync, etc just to make an outrageous claim in order to sell magazines. Is the internal culture of Microsoft bad? Maybe..but they're still churning out good software, and with the exception of a one-time write-down from a failed acquisition, they are still one of the most consistently profitable companies in the world. Like all large companies, they have had product failures, but if you're going to ignore the wins, why bother even writing the article?

It wouldn't put an end to these arguments. Facts are irrelevant to this "debate".

True, but you have to prove that they said something in order to have that matter. Just because it's illegal doesn't mean that it won't happen.

Taking that a step further, replicators in every home, with raw materials recycled from trash/waste automatically, and occasional deliveries of new raw materials as needed. Why bother with the overhead of a store?

I've always hated the argument that English is not the most widely spoken language because of "native" speakers. It is the most common second language that is learned throughout the world. And honestly, is the idea of having a single language that can be understood across the world so bad?

I'm all for translating documentation into a native language for more people to learn, but the programming language itself needs to be consistent across all uses. Otherwise, it's not the same programming language--just a copy cat with similar structure and syntax, but not very easily followed by someone who knows the original.

Ahh, you should file a patent on that - the corporate insanity defense. It can get a company out of all sorts of legal troubles!

Actually if I recall correctly, the number of people who are taking plea bargains has increased significantly, meaning that trial by jury is not nearly as common for criminal cases as it should be. No doubt many of those who take the plea bargain are innocent, but believe the odds are stacked against them when it comes to a trial and would rather take a shorter sentence over risking a much longer one if they are convicted.

I suspect that DNA evidence is a big reason for that behavior, since it's popularly believed to be irrefutable proof of guilt. If it turns out that it's not so perfect, more folks might start exercising their constitutional right to a fair trial.

Hacking Sony isn't exactly impressive, or new. I don't think there is anything left of Sony that hasn't been hacked already.

On the other hand, Google and Microsoft have sufficient security that any significant hack would be quite legendary. Dunno (or care) about Apple.

For moving people around, this is a useless concept. But why not use it for cargo? That significantly reduces the risk and complexity of the "train" itself. If you could move a few thousand freight containers from a Pacific port to an Atlantic port in a couple of hours, that would surely provide significant economic returns, and potentially open up much cheaper and faster ChinaEurope shipping lanes.

Hard to say if any of that would be enough to make the upfront costs worth it, mainly since I don't see an estimate of what those actual costs would be. I wouldn't be surprised if it were well more than $1 trillion though.

"The Pluto team is intrigued that such a small planet can have such a complex collection of satellites."

They call it a planet. Is this a case of NASA getting confused again, ala English/Metric, or is this a subtle acknowledgement that calling it a planet makes more sense than not calling it one?

That is a pretty arbitrary way of measuring company size. GM and Toyota are neck and neck for the #1 spot in terms of most cars sold. Yeah, from a purely financial standpoint GM is not doing as well as the others on that list, but they are climbing out of bankruptcy and turning solid profits. So I'm really not sure why anyone should care about this Forbes list.

The non-use of nuclear weapons is a temporary solution to the problem. The use of nuclear weapons is a permanent solution.